美国国家公共电台 NPR Can You Trust A Movie Trailer?

 

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

We've all been there - a darkened theater, the reminder¹ to silence your phones, of course, and then...

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM")

BRYCE DALLAS HOWARD: (As Claire) What is that thing?

CORNISH: ...It's movie trailer time...

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) This is the most dangerous creature that ever walked the Earth.

CORNISH: ...Often loud, often fast-paced, exciting, sometimes confusing. The trailer is there to whet² your appetite for more and to get you back into the movie theater. But should you really trust a trailer? Well, I'm here in Historic Studio 44 with Linda Holmes and Glen Weldon of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour. Guys, thanks for having me in your studio. How are you?

GLEN WELDON, BYLINE³: Great.

LINDA HOLMES, BYLINE: Great, Audie.

CORNISH: So I hear you have thoughts on thoughts on thoughts about movie trailers.

WELDON: Well, sure. I mean, you know, back in the day, if a trailer wanted to convey gravitas, it would use a voice of God, you know, the in-a-world kind of thing. But ever since about 2010, when "Inception⁴" came out, that's been replaced with the horns of serious business, the (imitating horn).

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM")

WELDON: Does exactly the same work.

CORNISH: Which conveys menace and suspense⁵ even when there is none, right?

HOLMES: Absolutely, absolutely true, although that was a very menacing clip that you played.

(LAUGHTER)

HOLMES: I'm afraid already. That's from "Jurassic World: The Fallen Kingdom." That's the new "Jurassic World" movie coming out this summer.

CORNISH: Now, we're actually in the era of, like, spoilers and spoiler culture and people who are always trying to ferret out what's going on with the film far in advance. And, Linda, I know you had a panel discussion for the Smithsonian Associates with the directors of "The Avengers."

HOLMES: "Infinity⁶ War," yeah.

CORNISH: "Infinity War" - Joe and Anthony Russo. And that was earlier this month, and they actually had to get into this, right?

HOLMES: Yeah. They had this come up in the Q&A from somebody who said, why was the trailer different from the film? And I sort of thought that they might hedge about it, but they really didn't. Here's Joe Russo answering this question.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

JOE RUSSO: As part of distributing fake scripts to the cast to protect the secrets of the film, we will often alter the trailers with visual effects in a way that we either misdirect or don't allow you to intuit exactly what is going to happen in the film so that we can surprise you when you get into the theater because...

CORNISH: Shocked.

HOLMES: Yeah.

WELDON: A thin tissue of lies.

HOLMES: (Laughter).

CORNISH: Shocked and appalled⁷.

HOLMES: Yeah.

CORNISH: There's a lot to unpack⁸ there - fake scripts, first of all...

HOLMES: Yeah.

CORNISH: ...But even the trailers now are supposed to mislead us.

HOLMES: Yeah. He may have been joking about the fake scripts, but he's definitely not joking about the trailers. So you have to know if you're going to be one of these people who goes in and microdissects, you know, a trailer on a frame-by-frame basis, some of that might not be what's in the film.

CORNISH: It's also interesting because there was a time when people talked about the trailers in this way, they were complaining, right? It was like a director or an actor being like, well, the trailer didn't really do justice to the film because it was really supposed to be this and then the audience was tricked and that's why things didn't go so well (laughter).

WELDON: Yeah. Good luck with that.

HOLMES: Yeah. I mean, marketing⁹ for films always has to decide how they're going to market the film, what impression they're going to give people of what this film is. And with some films, you'll even find - for example, "Bridesmaids" had one trailer that emphasized more the kind of warm friendship parts of that film and one that emphasized more of the really super raunchy parts of that film. And it depended on who they were marketing to. Both of those trailers existed. Both of them represent a real part of that movie. But they were completely different, and they gave a different impression of what the tone was going to be.

WELDON: And speaking of tone, the studios pay attention to how these trailers are received. So when the film "Suicide Squad¹⁰" had its first trailer, it looked exactly like you thought it was going to look 'cause it's a DC film. It was somber¹¹ and turgid and dark. And then six months later, they released another trailer done by an outside company that took all the jokes from the footage that had been shot and all the kind of wacky character moments and laid over the trailer Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY")

QUEEN: (Singing) No. We will not let you go.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SUICIDE SQUAD")

JOEL KINNAMAN: (As Rick Flag) You're going somewhere very bad.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY")

QUEEN: (Singing) We will not let you go.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SUICIDE SQUAD")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Whoa.

WELDON: Much different energy, much brighter and people ate it up. And so there are reports that the studio went to the director, David Ayer, and said, we want a movie that is more like this fun, edgy¹² tone.

CORNISH: So match the movie to the trailer.

WELDON: Match the movie to this other trailer. And, you know, he's denied that he did that. But there was a lot of reports about how many jokes were added and how the tone amped up.

CORNISH: So in the end, how does a good trailer balance all of these competing ideas and interests?

HOLMES: Well, the trick is to find a balance between really representing the film in a way that makes people excited to go see it but not giving away the whole film. You don't actually want the trailer to represent the film in mini because if it does - and I think everybody's had the experience of getting to the end of a trailer and thinking I feel like I just saw the whole movie, this is probably the whole thing, I think I know what the entire arc is - then sometimes they feel like, well, I don't think I need to see it now.

WELDON: And in a sense, it's really about capturing the tone of the film, not the story. Give me the sense of what I'm in for, not everything I'm in for, and I think you have a good trailer.

CORNISH: Glen Weldon and Linda Holmes of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, thanks so much, guys.

WELDON: Thank you.

CORNISH: Thanks, Audie.

(SOUNDBITE OF DAVE WECKL'S "CONVERGENCE")

1 reminder   

n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示

参考例句：

• I have had another reminder from the library.我又收到图书馆的催还单。
• It always took a final reminder to get her to pay her share of the rent.总是得发给她一份最后催缴通知，她才付应该交的房租。

2 whet   

v.磨快，刺激

参考例句：

• I've read only the fIrst few pages of her book,but It was enough to whet my appetIte.她的书我只看了开头几页，但已经引起我极大的兴趣。
• A really good catalogue can also whet customers' appetites for merchandise.一份真正好的商品目录也可以激起顾客购买的欲望。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 inception   

n.开端，开始，取得学位

参考例句：

• The programme has been successful since its inception.这个方案自开始实施以来一直卓有成效。
• Julia's worked for that company from its inception.自从那家公司开办以来，朱莉娅一直在那儿工作。

5 suspense   

n.（对可能发生的事）紧张感，担心，挂虑

参考例句：

• The suspense was unbearable.这样提心吊胆的状况实在叫人受不了。
• The director used ingenious devices to keep the audience in suspense.导演用巧妙手法引起观众的悬念。

6 infinity   

n.无限，无穷，大量

参考例句：

• It is impossible to count up to infinity.不可能数到无穷大。
• Theoretically,a line can extend into infinity.从理论上来说直线可以无限地延伸。

7 appalled   

v.使惊骇，使充满恐惧( appall的过去式和过去分词)adj.惊骇的；丧胆的

参考例句：

• The brutality of the crime has appalled the public. 罪行之残暴使公众大为震惊。
• They were appalled by the reports of the nuclear war. 他们被核战争的报道吓坏了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 unpack   

vt.打开包裹（或行李），卸货

参考例句：

• I must unpack before dinner.我得在饭前把行李打开。
• She said she would unpack the items later.她说以后再把箱子里的东西拿出来。

9 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

10 squad   

n.班，小队，小团体；vt.把…编成班或小组

参考例句：

• The squad leader ordered the men to mark time.班长命令战士们原地踏步。
• A squad is the smallest unit in an army.班是军队的最小构成单位。

11 somber   

adj.昏暗的，阴天的，阴森的，忧郁的

参考例句：

• He had a somber expression on his face.他面容忧郁。
• His coat was a somber brown.他的衣服是暗棕色的。

12 edgy   

adj.不安的；易怒的

参考例句：

• She's been a bit edgy lately,waiting for the exam results.她正在等待考试结果，所以最近有些焦躁不安。
• He was nervous and edgy, still chain-smoking.他紧张不安，还在一根接一根地抽着烟。